The present invention relates to a method for controlling an element of a drive train, which is influenceable by an operating device, in a vehicle, and a control unit for carrying out the method.
German Published Patent Application No. 38 02 241 discloses an electronic controller for motor vehicles which includes a control unit, a program memory, a data memory, and an input/output unit having multiple input and output channels. In this case, the basic configuration may be laid out for multiple different individual embodiment variations simultaneously. This basic configuration is assigned a code memory for at least one code word to determine the respective individual embodiment variants. At the time of installation into the vehicle, or even later, the specific code word for the vehicle equipment variant is input into the code memory in order to thus control and/or enable the appropriate special controller embodiment. The associated program sections, data sets, and input or output channels are controllable as a function of the respective content of the code memory. In this case, the controller variant corresponding to the respective vehicle type is thus permanently established by inputting the code word into the code memory. In the event of a subsequent change, e.g., installation of additional components, these new components may be taken into consideration by a new code word, if it was already provided. However, the corresponding one variant is then fixed for the running operation of the vehicle.
In addition, many types of control variants for elements of the drive train, such as motor, clutch, and transmission, are known. Thus, the article xe2x80x9cDas neue 5-Gang-Automatikgetriebe . . . [The New 5-Speed Automatic Transmission . . . ]xe2x80x9d from Automobiltechnischen Zeitschrift [Automobile Technology Magazine] 98 of 1996, pp. 508 to 519, describes an electronic transmission control in which different types of operation are detectable and selectable by, on the one hand, a transmission control panel and, on the other hand, by an automatic transmission. In this case, however, the hardware such as the controller and/or transmission control panel is very inflexibly linked to the associated control programs, in that every combination of transmission control panel, controller, and control program is tuned separately.
It may therefore be seen that the related art is not capable of providing optimum results in every respect.
The present invention describes a method and a control unit for controlling an element of a drive train, which is influenceable by an operating device, in a vehicle having a control unit and a storage device, the element and/or the operating device being implementable in different variants. In this case, at least one identifier is stored in the storage device, the identifier representing the respective variant of the element and/or the operating device which is contained in the vehicle. The element of the drive train is controlled by the control unit as a function of the respective identifier in accordance with the respective variant, different states of the respective variant of the element advantageously being selected and an identifier being assigned to each possible state, the respective identifier containing control information, the control unit analyzing the control information of the identifier, and the respective variant of the element being controlled by the control unit in accordance with the analysis of the control information.
Therefore, in particular during operation, an identifier is expediently made available for every state which the element assumes or will assume.
Since the control is carried out as a function of the control information in the identifier, it is advantageously decoupled from the underlying hardware.
Therefore, the control programs and/or control data may be drawn up as a superset independently of a concrete element structure and/or drive train structure, in particular the structure of the transmission and/or transmission control panel, only the states and state transitions to be implemented being taken into consideration, independently from the hardware, and therefore any desired arrangements, in particular of the drive train and/or transmission and of the transmission control panel, being suitable for use as its basis.
Advantageously, each state is applicably assigned a value tuple, which contains all information, i.e., control information, for the various parts of the software, even specifically for a prioritization method in regard to the control requirements. These parts of the software and/or the corresponding control system expediently only access the value tuple (control information in the identifiers) for their calculations and/or tests, without taking cognizance of the actual raw information, in particular of the control panel, in particular of a transmission control panel.
Therefore, a large multiplicity of variants may advantageously be operated using the same control software and/or the same control system, the design and/or variant of the arrangement, in particular of the transmission control panel, not playing any role. The inputs may then expediently be performed via, for example, an onboard communication computer, each valid input state being assigned a value tuple (control information).
In the event of a subsequent modification of the arrangement, in particular of the transmission control panel, only the associated part of the program has to be adjusted and all other program and/or software parts remain unchanged. The adjustment is expediently performed by adjusting the control information and/or its content, i.e., the tuple values.